THE FRIDAY SIX: Q&As with Your Favorite Broadway Stars- NYMF Edition with Kathryn Gallagher

Welcome to THE FRIDAY SIX: Q&As with your favorite Broadway stars. Want to know what hooked them to a career in the theater? Their dream roles? Their Broadway crushes? Read on!

In this week's edition, we caught up with Kathryn Gallagher, who just concluded her run in the new musical DUST CAN'T KILL ME.

What was your first "live onstage" taste of theater?

When I was doing after school theater when I was 12, I had this one really memorable moment where I was Mama Rose and I was about to do one of the dream speeches and I fully forgot it. Every. Word. So I just looked out into the audience and said "I'm speechless." That was the first moment I was like... ah yes, LIVE theater. I have been (somewhat) better with my lines ever since.

What is your favorite pre-show ritual?

Red bull or 5 hour energy. Also dance parties. Lots of dance parties. Loud music.

What's your most memorable "the show must go on" moment?

Literally too many to count. Maybe the time, during Spring Awakening at the Wallis in LA when a mic stand was missing in "And Then There Were None" and so the boys just all took turns holding the mic so Bonnie (Alex Boniello) could keep singing/playing guitar. That was pretty seamless working togetherness that was awesome. A real testament to what can happen when you're all focused and vibing.

There are a lot of funny little stories but more than anything, there are times where you just feel sad, tired, injured or heartbroken and the idea of singing and dancing and trying to be entertaining feels daunting. I've done shows an hour after a breakup where I cried on stage through all of Act 1... (or when my fish died and I cried on Seth Meyers...) but you keep the show going, you tell the story and by the end of the show, you remember why it's the only thing in the world you want to do. And you thank god for waterproof mascara.

What's your dream role?

I don't really have one! I actually love being a part of new musicals for this very reason. When you get to grow with something from the beginning, something magical happens. There's nothing like seeing a company that has grown together and being with a role that you keep discovering things in and that grows with you. I love seeing people in roles they helped develop, that's MAGICAL to me.

Who's your theatrical crush?

Is this like a talent crush or just a crush on someone who's in theater?! Either way... I almost fully tripped during our Tony performance because I was so excited to be strutting towards Jake Gyllenhaal.

One time I met Aaron Tveit and never in my life have I been more embarrassed because I was trying to be cool (I mean have you seen his face?) and I was 18 and it was this whole disaster! Now sometimes I see him at the gym and I duck. Is that the same thing as a crush? Should I be publishing this? Probably not!

Share something about yourself that would surprise people.

At my parents house in the woods of Connecticut, I used to have this book of animal facts and it had what all the different droppings (poop!) looked like and so I would go out into the forest behind my house and identify animals by their droppings and wrote down all of my findings in a journal. Helllooooooo fellas ;)